It may have been Jordan Eberle night at the Regina Pats-Red Deer Rebels game Dec. 5, but it was Rhyse Dieno who stole the show.

The right winger took first star honours in the Western Hockey League game scoring two goals and adding two assists on the night the Pats retired the No. 7 jersey worn by Eberle during his 2006 to 2010 stint with the club.

“It was a pretty good game,” said Dieno, the grandson of Davidson’s Terry and Carol Dieno. “It was cool to see Eberle’s jersey being hung up, so the boys were pretty excited about that and we were coming off a seven game winning streak. We were trying to build off that and the points just started coming to me, so it was nice.”

The Rebels 5-1 win against the Pats made it eight in a row for the Brent Sutter managed and coached club, which also marks the same amount of games Dieno has suited up on the top line for the team. Playing on a line with Turner Elson and Brooks Maxwell, Dieno has managed 11 points including four goals.

“My coach has put a lot of confidence in me,” said the 19-year-old winger. “It’s a little different than what I had last year (with the Medicine Hat Tigers), so it’s nice. He trusts me in situations to put the puck in the net and I’m just building off that and I have a lot of confidence.”

The quick-skating two-way forward got the call up to the WHL while trying out for Team Canada West in Calgary for the 2012 World Junior A Challenge. Dieno made the team and helped them take home a silver medal in the Nov. 5-11 tournament held in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in which he recorded five points playing on a line with Alex Kerfoot and Dylan Richard.

“It was an unreal experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I would love to do it over again, but I’m a little too old for that now. It was a great experience.”

The turnaround for Dieno turned out to be “pretty quick” as he had to fly back to Saskatchewan from Yarmouth and head straight to La Ronge, where he had spent the earlier part of the season playing for the Saskatchewan Junior A Hockey League’s Ice Wolves. Dieno packed up his stuff, said goodbye to his teammates and coach and hit the road to Red Deer. Less than a week later he suited up for his first game with the Rebels scoring the tying goal in 2-1 home win over the Swift Current Broncos.

“If I keep playing like I am right now I plan to play here the whole year and maybe even as a 20-year-old.”